


(How to make a) Little Girl Blue

by AKAuthor



Series: Under New Light [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adopted Children, Endgame is a bitch, F/M, Family, Family Fluff, Fight me on that, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Irondad, Ironfamily, Light Angst, Lube, Nebula & Tony Stark Friendship, Nebula (Marvel) Feels, Nebula (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Nebula (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Nebula-centric (Marvel), Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Protective Tony Stark, Slice of Life, Stark Family, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark acting as nebula's parent, but not for sexy times, make that clear, soft tony stark, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21531442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKAuthor/pseuds/AKAuthor
Summary: Morgan wanted to be just like Nebula. Nebula isn't sure that's what her parents want.A look into how Nebula learned that she is loved by the Stark Family.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Nebula & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Harley Keener & Tony Stark, Nebula & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Nebula & Pepper Potts, Nebula & Peter Parker, Nebula & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Under New Light [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550887
Comments: 34
Kudos: 545





	(How to make a) Little Girl Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my garbage pile, it's lovely to meet you. Please take a seat, and enjoy some canon family fluff featuring the Stark Family. This really happened, as we all know. The land of denial is vast.
> 
> Hit me up if there's anything Stark-fam related you'd like to read, cause I might want to write it.
> 
> This is for @seyma_dorr who asked for a spin off featuring Nebula and Blue Morgan!

Never in her many centuries of life in space had Nebula expected to be left in charge of another life form, yet here she now was, of all things, ‘babysitting’ a young terran, a species mostly known in space for their stupidity and complexing need to repetitively do things with the same results. 

Terra and everything on it was confusing and rather gross to Nebula who had in all her time, never visited such a muddy, noisy, and dangerous planet. The food was all bad, especially the stuff pulled out of the oceans and rivers. It smelled bad, frequently tasted worse, and was diverse in the oddest ways as humans were particular about how they enjoyed their food. Pepper enjoyed raw vegetables and colourful platters of seasonal grown food, some of which Nebula conceded was okay. Potato was bland but versatile enough to appease her and despite Morgan’s warnings, Nebula nibbled at some peas and didn’t mind them either, however how humans could eat the poisonous tubers from red-earthed planets that they called ‘sweet potato’ and survive was beyond her logical reasoning. Those tubers were considered illicit material and banned under some intergalactical poisonous organic matter convention on at least thirty planets including what Nebula knew to be her home planet. She stayed well away from the ‘sweet potatoes’. 

Tony liked richer foods, more exotic and expensive and complex to create or buy. He introduced Nebula to the foreign food called ‘Shawarma’ which was okay, though something in it made her mouth itch. He showed her delicate sweet foods called pastries that by her calculations were incredibly overpriced for the size of them, and the cheap delicacy called pizza on a trip into the city. Tony also took her to a Japanese restaurant, where they both learned that Nebula hates tuna. The cheeseburgers they picked up on the way home more than made up for the trauma of the fish experience however, and even if her oral sensors and remaining nerves thought the mix of mushy textures was gross, it did taste pretty good.

Harley and Peter showed her the best foods they could find, which meant smuggling lots of ‘packaged junk’ into the house under Pepper’s nose. Nebula was pretty sure the astute woman knew what her three eldest adopted kids were doing when they holed themselves up in the barn loft, but provided Morgan never got into the stash of chocolates, sweets, chips, and even ice cream they had stashed in the little freezer up in the hay, Pepper turned a blind eye. When Tony found out he was disappointed that he hadn’t been invited. 

And once he discovered Nebula’s scrunched up eyes as ice cream messed with the nerve endings in her mouth (cold food was not something she’d eaten before Terra and thus her brain did not know how to interpret the feeling) he invested in privately creating a new ice cream that was blue with berry swirls and tiny white chocolate flakes. There were many photos of Nebula trying her new ice cream, tub turned to the camera to show it’s name (Blue-Berry Nebula). Most of the photos featured Morgan sticking out her blue tongue, and Peter arguing over what flavour a Spider-man ice cream should be with Tony in the background.

Rhodey traveled often for work, and always returned with a local treat from wherever he had been visiting. He brought something for everyone, usually a small toy or treat for Morgan, an ugly shirt for Tony, a postcard for Pepper (some odd request she’d made), and unique snacks for Peter, Harley, and Nebula to try. So far her favourites have been authentic Turkish Delight, chewy, caramel biscuits called ‘Stroopwafel’ from the Netherlands, and the crispy fried bugs from Thailand that were at least similar to something else she’d tried before coming to Terra. Peter also liked the bugs, but Harley vastly preferred the jar of caramel from South America, Dulce de Leche. 

Morgan’s food tastes were much simpler, mostly because she was young and anything too spicy or bitter made her cry or screw her face up, as learned when Indian food night went south. Morgan liked to sit with Nebula on the couch, and while they watched a movie they would share simple snacks like chips or M&Ms, or Morgan’s favorite, berries. Recently, Morgan had been on a blue kick - she wore no other colour, played with just about no other toy, and if possible would eat only blue food. So with Tony and Pepper out for the evening, and Harley and Peter doing something in the garage, Nebula was left in charge of babysitting her smallest adoptive sibling.

Nebula didn’t understand much about what was happening on the screen, some movie about a chocolate factory that seemed dangerously run was playing, so she was more focussed on fishing out the raspberries from the bowl on her lap and listening out for screams of terror from the garage.

When Morgan squealed beside her and shot to her feet, reflex insisted that Nebula also jump to her feet and prepare herself to fight whatever had startled her young charge. The bowl of berries was shoved onto the couch, Morgan plucked up and swung behind her back, and a large baton threateningly pointed at the doorway, where nobody was. 

“Friday, is there an intruder?” Nebula whispered to the house AI.

“I am detecting no unexpected or banned lifeforms. Would you like me to call Boss?” Friday replied confidently, soothing Nebula’s nerves. If Nebula couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, the boys were fine, and Friday said nobody unexpected was around, she would believe they were safe. She knew that Peter would also sense if something was wrong, and between him and Harley Nebula trusted them to hold off intruders while she defended Morgan.

“Sorry Nebbie,” Morgan nervously apologised, twisting her hands in her shirt. 

Nebula cocked her head at the girl. “Why?”

“I scared you, I know I’m not supposed to scream inside, I just got excited,” said Morgan. Nebula tucked her baton away and sat back down, tense but happy to continue eating the berries and listening into the banter in the garage. 

“It is okay,” said Nebula. “I am easily startled. Why did you get excited?” 

Morgan pointed to the screen, frozen in place from when Friday had paused it when they stopped paying attention. “See, Violet turned blue! Into a blueberry!” Morgan excitedly told her, almost shrieking. 

“Yes, I see,” Nebula said. What was happening on the still screen was very confusing because a girl was now severely bloated and dyed blue, but nobody seemed to care very much.

Morgan clapped her hands and scrambled for the berry bowl. “I want to be blue too! Like you, so if I eat lots of blueberries maybe I can turn blue too!” she crammed a handful of fruit into her mouth. 

Nebula pulled the bowl away and held it over her head, out of reach of the little girl. She was not sure how realistic or reliable this film was, but turning the girl she was babysitting blue was not a chance she was willing to take. “I do not know how that works, but perhaps you should be careful consuming that many berries,” she warned. The amount it would take to turn Morgan blue was probably near lethal, and humans were capable of altering their skin tone via food intake, Nebula knew. Approximately 51 milligrams of beta-carotene a day would build up into a yellowish tinge in the skin, though that worked out to about ten carrots a day for multiple weeks. The number of blueberries Morgan would have to attempt to consume daily to turn herself blue would be entirely too many, if this film was to be believed. 

“Please Nebbie, I want to look like you!” Morgan was now clambering up the front of Nebula’s grey shirt, trying to reach the bowl. Juice had already stained her lips and chin greyish. 

Nebula froze in place, unwittingly putting the bowl in range of Morgan who resumed eating berries by the mouthful. The idea that someone, a terran at that, would want to look like Nebula was a strange one. Nebula knew she scared people, stood out in the crowds like nothing ever seen before. Even in space, her android parts garnered much attention. But she’d never been mimicked or praised for her looks. Compared to humans she was simply too different to merit much other than intimidation and fear - she and Friday theorised it had something to do with her lack of obvious pupil and iris, creating an instinctual distrust before registering her blue skin or metal integrations. 

The front door opening drew her out of her musing, and she looked over to see Tony and Pepper grinning at them. She didn’t know how to break it to the parents. Morgan had cleaned the bowl of berries and had jumped off the couch to tackle her mother, chattering away about her plan to become blue, “just like Nebbie!”

Nebula stood from the couch and curtly dropped her head. “I am sorry,” she rasped. 

The grins fell from Tony and Pepper’s faces, the latter giving the former an instructing look before scooping up her daughter and taking her up the stairs for a bath. 

Tony came around and sat on the couch, patting the spot beside him. “What’re you sorry for, Blueberry?” he asked, noting subtle flinch Nebula gave at the nickname. “Morgan seems like she had a great time.”

“She ate almost an entire bowl of blueberries,” Nebula said, stiffly sitting. “She told me they will turn her blue, but it cannot be healthy to ingest that much fruit to change your skin colour. She would not have done so if she had not wanted to be blue like myself.”

Tony sighed and then slowly began chuckling, patting Nebula on the shoulder. “I forget that despite being from outer space and from far more advanced stuff than the rest of us, you’re still learning about Earth,” he smiled. “No need to worry Nebs, the berries won’t turn her blue, no matter how many she eats. At most they’ll make her shit herself,” Tony said. 

Nebula looked at him, now somewhat embarrassed at her overreaction. “You are certain? I am aware of foods changing skin pigment in humans and other terran species.”

“Carrots and Flamingoes are two special cases, Cornflower. Undoubtedly there’s more, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that you thought that we would be angry about Morgan wanted to turn blue,” Tony’s sharp brown eyes held her own black ones sternly, with the kindness that seldom left them.

“Humans do not like blue skin. It makes them nervous and afraid,” said Nebula.

Tony waved a hand and pointed it at her. “You mean they don’t like you. Which is a lie, because I know a little girl upstairs who wants to be just like her big blue sister, and two boys outside that think you’re pretty great.”

“But they are-” Nebula wasn’t sure what they were to her, stating siblings out loud seemed a presumptuous step to make herself. 

“Family. They’re your family Nebula, and that means they don’t care that you’re blue. Anyone who matters won’t care, I promise,” Tony told her, softly. “Pepper and I included. We more than support you helping turn Morgan blue if that’s what she wants, though I would suggest some form of paint or dye,” Tony stood from the couch and planted his hands on his hips, his right gleaming metallic under the warm lamps of the lounge. “Now, we have a small Mongoose to tuck into bed, and then we are expected in the garage to see a toaster fly, so hop to it Bluebell, we’ve got places to be!” 

  
  
  


Taking Harley and Peter to the store was always a harder task than anticipated. Despite being the eldest, Nebula was not needed to drive them to the store, no that was Harley’s job, she was needed to make sure that the boys did not do anything on Pepper’s list of ‘absolutely nots’ and only some things on Tony’s list of ‘not strictly illegals’. For this reason Nebula was put in charge of the trip, the money, and supervising two terrans who were more than old enough to go without supervision to the store. But not together. Together Harley and Peter almost required child leashes or one of those sled-dog harnesses. The three of them were sent to the grocery store to pick up some items for Tony, who was making dinner that night. While Peter went off for tomatoes and ground beef, Nebula directed Harley to find a large bag of flour, cheese, and something for dessert, as per the note Tony had written for them. Nebula herself was in charge of finding Morgan’s shampoo, because someone had used it all by filling the toilet with it and seeing what happened when it flushed. The answer was a moderate amount of bubbles and a pleasant apple scent. 

Trusting that the boys would find her, Nebula carefully navigated the terran cleanliness aisle and set about finding a bottle of Morgan’s shampoo. Unfamiliar territory for someone with no hair. She hadn’t been aware of the numerous supplies terrans needed to stay clean, and she certainly hadn’t seen some of the products in front of her back at home. Perhaps they were kept elsewhere? 

Once locating Morgan’s preferred shampoo and sniffing it to make sure it was the right one, Nebula was sidetracked by a familiar word. A row of bright packaging with women on it, showcasing their hair stood out for one reason. Tony had mentioned the word ‘dye’ the other night, and Nebula had assumed it was some type of paint, but these boxes told her it was ‘hair dye’ and somehow involved in terran routines. One of the smaller boxes had brilliant blue tabs on it, and the young woman on the front appeared to have successfully changed her hair from blonde to a deep shade of blue. Nebula doubted Morgan wanted to change the colour of her hair, but to her knowledge of Terrans, they were all covered in a very fine layer of hair. Curious, Nebula read over the package and found no mention of dyeing body hair, but no cautions against it. She held on to it, placing it in the cart that Harley pushed around the corner.

“I said a large bag of flour, Harley,” Nebula said, eyeing the sack of flour filling the shopping cart. On top of the sack that looked too heavy for Harley to have lifted himself, sat two family portions of the dessert tiramisu, a blueberry pie, and a large block of cheese. 

“I got a large bag of flour, the largest, in fact.”

“I see that, but this may be too large.”

Harley shrugged. “Tony asked for large, didn’t specify how large, so he’s getting large. He can carry it from the car though, I’m not lifting it again.”

“We have to get it in the car, dumbass,” Nebula pointed out. 

“We have Peter for that,” said Harley. 

“Have Peter for what?” asked Peter as he came around the corner with more than what he was asked to get. He dumped his armload in the cart, which included a watermelon, another type of cheese, a pint of Spider-man’s raspberry and lemonade ice cream, and a box of cupcake mix with Avengers labelling. Nebula sighed. “Whoah, that’s a lot of flour, did Dad really ask for that much?”

“He didn’t specify specifics so this is what he’s getting. What’s with the cupcake mix, we all know it tastes like shit,” Harley plucked the box up and gave it a shake. 

“I read that if you substitute some of the ingredients out we can make them taste better. I also just wanted the edible paper prints of the Avengers,” Peter said. 

“Hey look,” Harley took something off the shelf, where a small collection of products under the same brand name were stored. He waggled the package at Peter who snorted into his arm and went a little bit red. 

Nebula was curious. “What is it?” Peter choked behind her. 

“It’s lube, I have an idea for it,” Harley replied, flinging it into the cart. 

Nebula had not heard of humans using lube outside of mechanics. “Like for mechanics? Why is it being sold in this aisle?” 

Peter made an aborted laughing-wailing sound into his hands while Harley grinned at her. “Yeah it’s a bit like lube for mechanics only it’s for humans to use. On other humans.”

“Humans do not need lubricant,” Nebula stated. 

“Some activities require it. I for one want to see how fast I can do down a waterslide into the lake if I coat myself in it,” Harley began leading the way to the checkout. “Let’s go I have to check if the weather will be good for watersliding tomorrow.”

Back at home, with the sack of flour safely transported to the floor of the pantry by a disgruntled Tony, Pepper was reading over their receipt while Peter rearranged the fridge to fit his watermelon. “Why did you buy lube?” 

Tony inhaled his glass of water up his nose and spat into the sink in shock. 

“It’s for Harley,” Nebula replied not seeing the problem as Tony began making hacking noises and Pepper furrowed her brow and red stained her cheeks. A loud clang echoes as Peter smacked his head on a shelf in the fridge. “I do not understand. He plans on seeing how fast he can go down a waterslide using it.”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense,” Tony gasped, reaching for his glass. 

“And the hair dye?” Pepper asked. 

“Oh I wanted that,” said Nebula, pausing as she diced onion. She didn’t understand why the vegetable made the others in the house cry when they cut it. 

Tony stared at her. “Nebs, you don’t have any hair to dye,” he said. 

“I know. But Morgan wants to be blue, and humans are covered in hair, are you not? I theorize that it should work.” She looked up from her dicing to find all three occupants of the kitchen staring at her with varying expressions of amusement and faint alarm. 

“Right. Well we might leave the dye until Halloween, because it’s quite long lasting and Morgan won’t want it to come off before she can show everybody,” Pepper said.

“Okay,” said Nebula.

  
  


Late the next morning, when the late summer sun was starting to become uncomfortably warm and the last of breakfast had been cleaned off Morgan’s face, Pepper sat her girls down on the porch, where they could get a front row seat to Rhodey, Tony, Peter, and Harley flinging themselves down a sheet of wet plastic and into the lake. 

Once he’d heard about their plan, Tony had made an early trip into town under the pretense of science to purchase numerous types of soap and lubricant, so now Happy was watching them from the shade of a tree, holding the hose while Peter and Harley threw handfuls of flavoured lube at each other.

“I was saving this for your birthday Morgan, but I decided today would be a better day for it,” Pepper said, pulling a large case from under the table and opening it to reveal many containers and brushes. Nebula picked out an orange one, turning it to read the top.

“Paint… for your face? Is this normal?”

“For children, yes. I thought you could help me turn Morguna blue,” Pepper handed her a brush and a little plastic plate. While Nebula held it, Pepper dabbed different shades of blue and purple onto it and set about mixing them. “What do you think, honey?” Pepper asked Morgan, holding up a brush of blue to Nebula’s face, checking for a match.

“Perfect!” Morgan shrieked, presenting her face to her mother by scrambling onto Nebula’s lap. Automatically one of Nebula’s arms came to hold the little girl around the middle. 

It took a good few minutes to get Morgan to stop giggling, then stop smiling, and then to paint her entire face blue. Once that was complete, the little girl turned and gave Nebula a big blue grin. “I’m like you!”

“Not yet, Morg,” Pepper said, holding a brush aloft. Nebula helped the girl pull her hair back into a ponytail so her mother could cover her neck in blue paint. She then painted in some sharper cheekbones and used a sponge to blend the deeper colours into the base blue, until Nebula was faced with what she might have looked like as a child. Sweet round eyes and big cheeks, bare of scars or metal or surface wiring. 

Tony came up the stairs, dripping sudsy water onto the wood. “Look at my two blue girls,” he exclaimed, taking the brush from Pepper and helping her out of her chair. As he sat down Nebula gave him a questioning look. “I’m taking over for the finer details, apparently they’re my forte,” he winked. 

Pepper scoffed and pressed kisses to each of their heads, leaving Nebula for last. Nebula liked it when Pepper or Tony held her head gently and pressed their lips to her head. It took time to get used to non-threatening touches, but since Everything happened, she had slowly learned to be loved, and to give it in return. Nebula looked up at Pepper and gave her a smile that crinkled her cheeks and made it hard to see. Just for that, Pepper gave her eldest another kiss to the forehead, before she was walking over to the waterslide and pulling a stopwatch out of her pocket.

“Have you been timing? I thought this was an experiment boys?” Nebula heard her laugh as Peter went flying past her on his stomach. 

“Now, I need both of you to look at me,” Tony pulled the girls attention back to himself. “I know your mom is great to look at but- ow!” 

Nebula grinned at him and removed her foot from his shin. Slowly, with all the care of an artist, Tony carefully filled in Morgan’s face with bronze and black paint, highlighting in lighter blue the more obvious scars. He used his metal hand, which perfectly pinched the brush and made delicate straight lines, glancing up at Nebula to make sure he was being accurate. 

“And… done!” 

In the mirror Tony held up, Nebula was stunned and warmed. Tony had done an admirable job of replicating her metallic features in shiny paint, right down to the subtle wiring and grooves of her bronze plate. He’d added the trace of the scar Nebula had on her cheekbone, and perfectly textured the blue of the sides of her face compared to the smoother paint of the purple panel down the middle. The intricate detail around Morgan’s eye was close to perfect, reaching up to disappear into her hairline. The biggest difference that Tony couldn’t erase was the gigantic smile splitting Morgan’s face.

He held his phone up, capturing Nebula’s disbelief and Morgan’s excited pride, right before the girl darted off her lap and down the stairs to show her uncles, brothers, and mother. 

“You next, Blueberry?” Tony asked, picking up the smallest brush and swirling it through the silver paint. 

Taking a leap of faith in the man who trusted her enough to let his daughter copy her, Nebula nodded and closed her eyes. 

The family photo taken later was quite the show. Along with Morgan-as-Nebula, Peter had begged Tony to paint the eyes of the Spider-man suit over his face, Harley had the entire Iron Man faceplate painted on his, and Rhodey had gone with simple war paint and a rainbow on his cheek courtesy of Harley holding him down and Morgan grabbing the nearest brush. Pepper had a vine of flowers creeping up one cheek and a blue heart on the other, while Tony’s face had been grabbed by his wife for a kiss and left two big red handprints on his cheeks. Morgan slapped her own smaller yellow handprints over her moms for good measure. Happy stayed out of the paint, though stuck around for the laughs and to take the photo. 

Peter perched on Tony’s back posing like Spider-man, Harley down in front of them with Rhodey beaming at the camera. Pepper had Morgan on her shoulders so the girl was close to level with Peter, Nebula shyly smiling at the camera in the middle of her family.

With a silver and bright blue arc reactor painted on one cheek, and a red heart on the other. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, leave a comment or a kudos if you like that would be nice. Cheers.


End file.
